Modelling the superparamagnetic response of AEM data

Several lines of VTEM data flown at different system elevations across a known sulphide body and surface cover with elevated superparamagnetic (SPM) properties were analysed with MAXWELL, layered-earth inversions (LEI), LEROIAIR and LEROI. The SPM material was modelled with frequency-dependent magnetic susceptibilities at shallow depth. Due to their slow late-time decay, SPM responses can be confused with responses of deep conductors and vice versa. Depending on the parameter weighting used, 1D inversions model all late-time responses as deep conductive material or as surficial SPM material. However, the joint ID inversion of data acquired at different system elevations manages to recover a deep conductor from the sulphide anomaly and elevated SPM values at the location of the SPM response. For the modelled parameters, the VTEM datasets from two elevations (at 70 and 80 m) require a vertical separation of 10 m to allow for the discrimination between the SPM and sulphide responses. For lower system elevations, less sensor separation is necessary due to the strong gradient of the SPM response. Following the determination of SPM parameters from VTEM survey data, these values were used to hypothesise the SPM response for a range of system geometries, showing that larger transmitter loops and larger offsets between transmitter and receiver loops reduce SPM effects. We suggest that two vertically separated receivers could be used to measure the airborne electromagnetic (AEM) gradient and depending on the flying height of the transmitter, the vertical offset of the receivers should be between 2 and 40 m. If gradient data are not collected, then EM responses measured during the transmitter on-time and x-component data, if available, might offer some model discrimination. Whereas synthetic data of the examined helicopter TEM systems VTEM, AEROTEM and HELITEM indicate a fairly high sensitivity to SPM effects, fixed-wing MEGATEM data are much less affected, due to the higher transmitter elevation and large transmitter loop - receiver separation. SPM effects on data of frequency-domain systems such as the RESOLVE system are also small.